Does cognitive dissonance predict cross-domain belief consistency and online sharing of vegetarian dietary choices?

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Cognitive dissonance theory describes how humans strive for apparent consistency in attitudes and behaviours and thus avoid the psychological discomfort of holding contradictory beliefs or values. It has been used to frame the relationships between beliefs about the health and ethics of food and subsequent food and dietary choices (Ong, Frewer, & Chan, 2017). We will categorise individuals according to their apparent coherence within the food domain (e.g. a 'healthy eater', who values and practices healthy eating, or an 'ethical vegetarian', who values animal welfare and avoids eating meat); evaluate the extent to which this coherence carries over into other, non-food domains (e.g. 'healthy eaters' who smoke); describe how these patterns of coherence within- and between-domains evolve over time; and test whether these patterns are associated with life events.